Bartika Eam Rai is a Nepali singer, songwriter, and a poet. She is based in New York City, United States. In 2016, Rai launched her solo music career with the release of Bimbaakash. She then released Taral in 2018. Rai grew up in a family of musicians and it had a great influence on her. Bartika Rai, performs as Bartika ‘Eam’ Rai, is a multilingual singer-songwriter and musician of Nepali descent currently based out of New York, U.S. She began her musical career in Kathmandu’s underground music scene before becoming a solo artist and releasing her debut EP titled Bimbaakash in 2016.
Early life
Bartika grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal and moved to the states during her early twenties. She now currently lives in New York City where she works at a gas station. She made her first music tour in Nepal in 2018. Bartika Rai, who goes by Bartika ‘Eam’ Rai, is a multilingual singer-songwriter and musician of Nepali descent currently based out of New York, U.S. She began her musical career in Kathmandu’s underground music scene before becoming a solo artist and releasing her debut EP titled Bimbaakash in 2016.
Musical career
In late 2010, Rai became the vocalist for the undergroundKathmandumetal band Gothica and spent a year performing with them. During this time, Rai was the most popular in the Kathmandu underground music scene as the extremely-few-female musicians in one of the best-ranked metal bands of her time. Rai released singles in 2007 and 2011. In October 2015, she finalized an EP-deal produced by Diwas Gurung. The EP titled Bimbaakash was released in March 2016 and has over two million digital views on youtube alone. Her first full-length album, Taral; was released in June 2018. Rai completed her DIY tour for the pre-release of her album Taral. This was the first time for a Nepali solo artist to organize, host and perform one's own tour in the U.S..
Career-Social Responsibility
Rai's writings are based on questioning identity, responding to coming of age and the concept of belongingness. Rai is also the first Nepali to perform at SofarSounds New York- the global network of intimate alternative performing..
Publication History
This is a brief timeline of Rai's publication history in national and international media as a writer and poet. She also maintains a blog of experimental fiction as namastelafillle on WordPress.
These Fine Lines: Anthology Contributor, 2016.
Academy of American Poets: Poet, Wildflowers, 2016.
Rai was crowned Miss Nepal US 2013 at the grand finale of the Voyage to Shangrila 3rd Miss Nepal US beauty pageant held at Queens Theater in New York on August 17, 2013. Alongside the title of Miss Nepal US 2013, Bartika won a $5,000 scholarship to continue her education from Namgel Lama in New York.
